* The Rauner campaign sent out a few news stories covering the candidate’s swing through southern Illinois. Here’s video of coverage by WPSD TV…

Transcript provided by the Rauner campaign…

ANCHOR: Republican candidate for governor Bruce Rauner is on the campaign trail – today in Marion hoping to connect with the outdoorsmen in the region. He introduced his Conservationists for Rauner Coalition for those who, like himself, enjoy the great outdoors. He says as governor he would work to revamp the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

RAUNER: Our parks are not being taken care of, our national forests are deteriorating, our waterways, we need to enhance our natural resources so families can enjoy them. With hiking and camping and hunting and fishing and riding.

ANCHOR: Rauner says that working to better the department would lead to job creation and improve local national forests and tourist attractions.

Um, national forests? The state doesn’t have enough money to take care of what it has, and he wants to restore national forests? Does he even listen to himself?

Rauner was very vocal about protecting and maintaining the natural resources in Southern Illinois. He says tourist destinations like state parks and wildlife areas can be utilized to create more jobs and improve the economy.

“The outdoors can generate a lot of economic activity,” said Rauner.

He claims recent state budget cuts have hurt promotion of the state’s natural resources. If elected, he promises to team up with state conservationists to preserve parks and wildlife areas in hopes of boosting the state’s economy.

“Our gas stations can get more gas sold to tourists and travelers,” explained Rauner. “It can help our hotels and restaurants.”

I couldn’t agree more. But how are you gonna do that when you slash the income tax rate while also promising to increase school funding, etc.?

===…how are you gonna do that when you slash the income tax rate while also promising to increase school funding, etc.?===

Well, by freezing property taxes …

The man on the stump is clueless to governing. It is scary to think what it will be like when Rauner learns all these “quick fixes” and grand plans literally can’t be accomplished, and further, are economically crippling, even more than where the state currently is.

It doesn’t matter if it makes sense. You are the only one calling him on it, Rich. So where is the rest of Rauner’s plan to shake up springfield? to date no real plan pieces of a plan. Is trib going to endorse him without a real plan?

I take this as proof (to me, at least — although I knew it at least a year ago) that Rauner is nowhere near as smart as he thinks he is.

I’m guessing his comment about not wanting to explain the ins-and-outs of equity investing to the ordinary “working joe” has less to do with Rauner’s hubris and condescension and more to do with the fact that Rauner himself has no idea how it’s done.

The debates will be brutal. Rauner will be trounced.

The other issue — and something I’ve noticed for a while now — is that he’s not a quick thinker, either. You can see it on the video. He smiles, and it’s clear from his nervous eyes that he’s thinking, processing, attempting to clarify the cacophony of campaign directives and talking points floating around in his head.

Rauner does not have a clue how to govern. He has a couple of things going for him though—he has a ton of money and is running against an unpopular governor. He may just get elected and then be a total mess as governor. I say that as an embarrassed Republican.

Remember, he is just the salesman. When the magic doesn’t occur and things get tough, he will do as he did when one of the businesses he invested in goes south. He’ll walk away and blame others. Because everything he does is successful!

Hmm, I wonder if there’s been a study, if private equity first-time candidates do somewhat better than the (generally dismal) average of businessmen running for office.

He’s doing I imagine what he did in the private sector: promise amazing returns if he was allowed to acquire a company, blah blah blah, say anything to secure the deal, and then figure out what to do afterwards, after he could “open the books” and look around more. It’s a very applicable skill to running for public office. Governing afterwards, maybe not so much.

If you cut a few Democrat patronage workers off bloated payrolls, and reduce taxes, there will be more than enough money to increase education funding and to fund both our state and any federal parks around here.

It is simple, especially if your Lt. Gov can do magic.

Just ask anybody on the right. They will tell you all about it.

Unfortunately though, it is not just the far right. Seems like a lot of people in IL are more than willing to accept “this is going to be easy” as the answer, and Rauner has no problem feeding them that line.

You have to give Rauner credit. While he may not understand the basics of how IL govt functions, he certainly understands IL voters.

He is doing good right now. Problem is he will eventually have to govern. He has yet to show me that he is capable of doing so. The biggest failure I see in him so far is his complete lack of understanding of the budget.

I don’t like either candidate. Let me put that out there before I respond.

I think Quinn has a far better grasp that Rauner. Quinn at least had the guts to say that the current tax rates need to be extended or made permanent. Rauner doesn’t seem to have a grasp on the budget, which was made glaringly apparent by the budget “plan” he released, which was a complete sham.

I might consider Rauner if he could convince me he wouldn’t make the budget situation worse. From what I’ve seen he would make the situation far worse.

“we need to enhance our natural resources so families can enjoy them”. Great idea, terrific sales pitch, could not agree more, but this is not a unilateral operation. The members of the GA kinda have some say in budget development/funding and they cannot be fired, closed, sold off or outsourced. Comes back to: What’s the Plan?

More of the same. Remember a week or two ago he was going to create jobs by improving Illinois’ water ways (which are maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers) and railroads (which are owned by the railroads)? Now he wants to maintain National forests. Maybe he’s planning a mega-merger? That’s about the only explanation that makes sense.

Most posters on this topic think too much. They analyze too much. The voters are going to elect Rauner because he is selling the sizzle - and that is what a good salesman does. Having the money to market the sizzle does not hurt either. At the end of the day Rauner wins the Governorship because voters are hungry for even the promise of some sizzle, and the are not going to even remember 4 years down the road what the actual steak tasted like.

This is vision stuff. It looks good in a sound bite. Standard operating procedure. Moving along. Unless you’all think Rauner’s the only one who has ever, is now, or will - in the future - spout this kind of nonsense, you are daffy (snark). However, I understand that since Rauner claims to be an outsider - altogether different from your usual candidate (yeah, like we’ve never heard THAT before) you can jump on this as contradictory. Of course, that is completely true.

Again, these are set pieces. The candidate positions himself depending on what the research shows is most advantageous - either outsider immune to undue influence or insider who can deliver the pork. The message is crafted to push the point. Media buzz is managed - it happens every cycle. Learned folks here appropriately, and predictably, lambast the hypocrisy while lamenting the absence of talent in the various races. Unfortunately, there are few shining stars as candidates (read JBT & OW) who we can point to as paradigms of political virtue (if such even exists). Onward to the general election! Too bad Pat Paulsen died, I’d've voted for him rather than the pork supplier or craven outsider.

===At the end of the day Rauner wins the Governorship because voters are hungry for even the promise of some sizzle, and the are not going to even remember 4 years down the road what the actual steak tasted like.===

Raunervich has a good grasp of things. However, he’s willing to say whatever and do whatever it takes to win the prize. As someone mentioned earlier he’ll just blame someone else for the problems he’ll cause.

Really depressing. Both of these jokers will say anything to please whatever audience they are talking to. Don’t even care if it is true or not. They just want elected. Sad and we wonder why voter apathy is what it is.

The state could definitely do a better job promoting its natural getaway sites — Southern Illinois, Mississippi River, Galena, Starved Rock, etc. — in the most obvious and potentially lucrative market, which is Chicago and suburbs.

Wisconsin and Michigan are all over Chicago TV and billboards, always, promoting getaways in the great outdoors. Nada for Illinois.

No Illinois candidate ever lost an election by underestimating the intelligence of the typical Illinois voter.

MJM and Quinn told voters that their massive, job killing 67% income tax increase would be “temporary” and would pay all our overdue bills. The mentally challenged Illinois voters re-elected those who increased the taxes, and actually increased their margins to veto proof levels.

The pols now are moving to keep the tax permanent after refusing to end the wasteful pork spending and enact serious pension and educational funding reform.That bill backlog has just been dented, not made current. The GA and Guv had other “plans” for that money.

Obama promised you can “keep your doctor”, “keep your insurance”, and promised that he would decrease health insurance costs to taxpayers and the insured by $2500 each. He lied. Illinois voters re-elected him by huge margins.

So now Rauner is claiming he can cut taxes while increasing education funding, but won’t say where he’ll cut.

Voting for that kind of deal makes as much sense as re-electing Dems in the GA, Quinn, and Obama after their deceptions and failures.

Rauner may not be an experienced candidate, but he sure knows his Illinois voter history.

He knows how they think, and he gives them what they WANT to hear instead of what they NEED to hear.

Those CaymanCuties traveling on the bus must have Mitt Rauner plum tuckered out. Could Mitt have just revealed that he is running to be a General in the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.
Can we also agree that Mitt’s current position it vote to raise the income tax rate from where it will be on 1-1-15 to a HIGHER rate and impose $600 million in higher sales taxes.

So basically @Arizona Bob, anybody that doesn’t buy into your schtick is unintelligent. Got it. I’ll speak for all Illinois voters and just say bite us.

==MJM and Quinn told voters that their massive, job killing 67% income tax increase would be “temporary” and would pay all our overdue bills.

Well, that’s not what they said, but whatever. And if you think the budget is bad now, try going back and not passing the tax hike and see where the budget would be today. Not pretty.

==The pols now are moving to keep the tax permanent after refusing to end the wasteful pork spending and enact serious pension and educational funding reform.==

Well, Bob, in case you’ve been living under a rock I believe they passed a pension “reform” bill. Probably an unconstitutional one but they passed one. I’d love to hear your ideas on what real pension reform is - mind you it has to be constitutional. And we all know educational funding reform for you means cutting teacher salaries.

Gee Bob, for somebody that doesn’t even live here anymore and has a real disdain and hatred for the state you sure seem to comment a lot about it.

Rauner’s right on DNR and the Shawnee National Forest. We haven’t had a governor in a long time who cared. Blago went out of his way to avoid state parks and Quinn’s only continued the budget cutting and patronage hiring.

Money goes a long way to fixing what’s wrong in DNR and IHPA, but leadership and flexibility are needed even more. That requires executive action.

Working with the feds in their agencies is also key. Currently we have a state quarter coming out soon showing Camel Rock, but the forest service leadership is banning tour buses at Garden of the Gods if they don’t have a permit, which takes months to get. There are solutions, but it would take someone actually working to them to see them through.

I’m surprised there has been no discussion about how Quinn has been a very strong advocate for IDNR. For years IDNR was treated as one of the low priority agencies to cut and sweep fees from in order to balance the budget, Quinn promised to stop the bleeding and has been a strong supporter and advocate for DNR, downstaters and outdoorsmen give him little credit for his continued and passionate support of DNR. Rauner on the other hand will have to cut DNR to make his budget magic work, leaving state parks and wildlife preserves and the downstate communities that depend on them in the same sorry state Rauner’s equity firm left a number nursing homes.

You all need to give Arizona Bob a break- he has to have something to do (write his national talking points posts here at Cap Fax) while he sits on hold, waiting for the call screener to let him make comments on Rush’s radio program…

Arizona Bob: Stay around. We mostly know which of your points carry some real substance, and which are mostly just spouting off hot air. We enjoy a little of both.

Amazing how folks can rewrite history, and claim that politicians said something they just didn’t — or make political use of just one damaging piece and pretend it wasn’t part of a larger message.

Example 1 is that the Lottery was not initially sold by anyone, to anyone, as a funder of education. That myth was created by political opponents after the fact, as a great way to point out how promises had been broken.

A similar rewrite is now occurring with the tax increase. The full message with which Quinn sold the tax increase, was that it would help us meet our full ramped-up pension obligations, and keep the government running, and help prevent larger-than-planned cuts in funding for human services and education, and reduce our outstanding overdue bills, while keeping our credit rating from going immediately (2010) into the tank.

It was also one part of a larger package leading to fiscal health in the medium term, including firm spending ceilings, debt restructure, and pension reforms, all of which were formally proposed, but which have died or fallen short for various reasons.

@ Gooner
=That jobs killer sure is driving unemployment down.
If it is designed as a jobs-killer, it is the worst job killer ever.=

Look at the unemployment and participation rates before and after the tax increase. Pretty clear correlation and causation there. We’ve lost 4200 jobs while virtually all our neighbors have increased employment, sometimes dramatically. Learn to read graphs and data, Gooner.